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Christian Faith (Non-Fiction)

The Power of Collectivity is a motivational book about the importance of working together as a family, church, group or company in achieving goals. Collectivity overcomes stagnation. It comes in handy in a society full of materialistic and individualistic tendencies. Readers will find help via scriptures on how they can become relevant in groups, overcome problematic tendencies and discover the benefits of collectivity. With all this in mind, Brian Sigauke explains that a people still can be useful in groups without losing individuality or identity.

Have you ever been at the point, as a single Christian, where you’ve prayed for deliverance from lustful thoughts only to find yourself still battling them? Many Christian singles battle in mind, heart, and body with unwanted lust. This blog is actually an excerpt from a chapter in A Single Woman’s Journey Through Marriage Preparation:

(You may notice my use of “we” and “us” in isolated situations. When I addressed single women, as a married woman, I often wrote “we” “us” because of the battle that we as believers are in together – to uphold one another in one way or another.)

Chapter 8

Overcoming Sensual Temptations

V. 15. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. V. 16. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. V. 17. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof. But he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. – St. John 2:15-17 (KJV)

Media, Sex, And Entertainment

Sisters, we live in a world today that parades a totally different interpretation of sexuality. And it’s outside Biblical parameters. You can see that already. You can see how the entertainment industry and its media have decorated immorality. In fact, if in the flesh, we can barely recognize when something is wrong because we are so entertained.

The movies and television shows are so interesting – not the sex itself all the time, but the plots around the sexual content. Because we want to know whether So and So will live or die, whether our favorite couple will withstand their problems, or whether So and So will find her long lost son, we watch the lust-filled show and its accompanying sexual content. We watch movies that involve obstacles preventing a woman and man from getting together. Well, when they finally get together during these plots we, the viewers, are so glad that we watch their “love-making” scenes with no heed to our convictions. We’re so glad Sue and Dew are finally together. We say, “Oh, how sweet!…Aw!” We even cry.

Now, even commercials throw hard bodies in our faces tempting us to drool over these men on our screens. Advertising campaigns, such as billboard ads and magazine ads, now display models in compromising positions. The world is demonstrating now that they do not care what you’re trying to protect your kids from – let alone your adult eyes.

Entertainment is a very common weakness for most of us who belong to Jesus. We like fun and pleasure. But God wants us to discern those choices of entertainment that subtly place us in the devil’s territory where we are presented luring, enticing, convincing opportunities to commit sins that we can possibly fail to recognize under the world’s camouflage. Sin is becoming too familiar because it’s too common and appealing. It looks too good, it sounds too good, and it is too hilarious if we try to resist it in our flesh alone.

It happened to Samson. He took a liking to activities that were not God’s will for His children. As a result, he disobeyed God as he revealed the secret of his strength to Delilah. In fact, Samson laid his anointing on the line when he told her where his strength lied. When he awakened from his sleep after a few times before with his strength, he knew the last time that the Lord’s Presence was no longer with him, as his hair had been shaven off. You can read this story in Judges 13th thru 16th chapters.

Examine Samson’s life and the areas where he chose to be entertained. He flirted with what displeased his Lord. In doing so, he diluted his sensitivity toward his relationship with God. Each time a believer flirts with ungodly activity, such as compromising movies, sensual music, and ungodly company, he or she becomes less sensitive about living a holy lifestyle before the Lord. Those temptations out there are so dressed up that, continually viewing them from our living rooms with multiple channels from which we can choose, we become permissive to ungodliness.

Samson did not transfer himself from faithfulness to sinlessness overnight. From the time when he received the knowledge of God’s Presence in his life to keeping company with Delilah, Samson had taken himself through a gradual process that made sin feel more and more comfortable to him. It had to start somewhere. He had already kept company among the Philistines where he had met his wife. Gradually, Samson had maneuvered his way into those territories where he did not belong.

Likewise, we are not tempted to commit fornication just sitting at the dinner table or by simply mingling with our friends. A process has to begin in order for the devil to do a number on a sister. (That’s why Paul warns that we are not to give place to the devil. – Ephesians 4:27 James admonishes believers that we are to submit ourselves to God, resist that devil, and know he will flee from us. – James 4:7)

The devil has compelled and tempted us by what we find entertaining, usually through beautiful love stories. To us, love scenes are so sweet. He has introduced us to sensual music that depicts fornication with melodies and beats that just take our breath away. (The melodies and beats themselves many times are not the problems. But they are hidden behind sensual words.)

Then, the devil has sent these men in our directions – even in our churches. (I’m talking about to many of the active Christian women in the churches.) Some of us have met men and begun dating them with good intentions. The men themselves may have had good intentions. With no plan to fornicate, a woman will still have those entertainment seeds planted in her mind and heart. Fornication just doesn’t seem so bad because it’s so familiar. (At least you’re not conducting yourself like you’ve seen other women on the television screen. Right? Let yourself come to the point where you can recognize the devil’s many angles of justification – just to get you to fall out of the will of God.)

Well, that’s the end of that section in my book. The entire book is far more thorough with a number of different topics for single women in Christ. But I thought this section might also help with the battles with mere thoughts. These thoughts creep into the mind because of seeds that have been planted. In our society, the main way they are planted is through inappropriate and blatantly rebellious entertainment. Behind entertainment, there is a wide range of media that promotes it while they shamelessly challenge Biblical convictions. So, if you’re ever wondering why you’re battling so much despite the prayers that you’ve sent up to the Lord, remember to take heed to His Word as you pray.

Be not deceived. Evil communications corrupt good manners. – I Corinthians 15:33

Marriage Vows Under Fire is a series of Christian romance novels that address marriage as well as courtship. In a real world of real issues, the story lines are contemporary without vulgarity and profanity. The romance is sweet as any cloud 9 journey with humor, suspense, and drama. And the message of the gospel is clear in the midst of a story of couples, to which many of us can relate.

For more information on all my books and to engage in other good books, products, and services, visit MillennialEdge.net.

Beautiful Scars gripped my heart while I read it. Throughout this autobiography, Patti Chiappa tells her memoir like she’s writing to her friends and many pen pals. It’s a very personal and engaging story. She tells it very conversationally yet with many beautiful depictions and pearls of wisdom. She uses colorful language in the purest but most candid sense.

Reading about her life protecting her brother and delighting in love stories about elder family members, there should be no surprise that Patti’s focus in her story leans heavily on her family. Her tendency towards selflessness is outlined in several occurrences in her story and is an undertone in her book. The beginning somewhat reads more like a biography about her parents. As a heroine of her past and as the author telling her story, she shares what could be a spotlight in her testimony. She describes her family as a very defining part of her life and (her parents, brother, champion paternal grandparents, and eventually her husband) as a circle of retreat from a cruel world that entrapped her.

The book is a revelation of how people we assume we can trust (such as relatives, teachers, principals, and police) can show their human sides to the point where you’d doubt there is humanity in them. And when forgiveness and peace in Christ occurs, the perception about all the dirt that occurred matures to her glimpse of God’s “master plan”, as she describes it. She is clear, even throughout horrific points, that God’s angelic interventions and her faith founded on Him helped her overcome those human-imposed living nightmares. And the love of Christ also helped her overcome her overall challenge with the existence of the drug dealers and bullies who made up the grim world she lived in and had to endure as an innocent school girl.

Her childhood growing up under loving, caring parents was a heartfelt testimony to read. As a parent, I felt heart-broken for the difficult choices both her mother and father had to make for their family’s survival. The horrific conditions of their many challenges in the ghetto contribute to one of the several tear-jerking aspects in Patti’s story.

I don’t want to give any spoilers in this review. But I have to provide this angle:

At almost midpoint of her memoir, Patti stops the pace of her story to point out that she feels she has to give other victims a voice. (An example of her selfless undertone as author.) While the pace breaks, it’s so timely and so true. She does just that, describing a terrifying occurrence that (further) scarred her view of herself and others.

If you are looking for a story in a humble voice, saying, “I can relate to your pain,” this is it. And the story of the hand of God strengthening and healing for a purpose, that is not comprehensive to the natural mind, speaks throughout the pages of this book. This book can be purchased as an ebook or printed book and can be ordered through any major online bookstore.